The Lord of the Plains

by Sarah Chapman

Chapter 10

  Riley was being very irritating on her first day of school. Not that she was behaving any differently from the day before, but Aerlid was finding her usual behaviour very unsettling. She didn’t seem to appreciate his hurry. He stuffed her into her hat and new clothes, then she went and got changed into her usual all black attire. He changed her back and had to hold her forcibly at the table and watch her eat her breakfast. That done, he asked what had happened to her brand new backpack and lunch he’d made her. She had shrugged.

  Finally, with Aerlid looking more than a bit harried, they were out the door, which was locked so Riley couldn’t go back in.

  She waited, completely calm and unruffled, while Aerlid checked her over. He was very nervous about her first day. It would help if she was a little bit too.

  He took her hand- holding tight so she couldn’t escape, and they began walking towards the school. He explained to her again she was to listen to the teacher, that she was to wait at the school for him to pick her up, that she was to be gentle with the other children and so on…

  When they arrived Riley’s interest perked up. The school was a double story building with a low fence around it. Other children and their parents were gathered in the dirt yard. Most looked older than Riley. She smiled up at Aerlid. Aerlid was feeling sick to his stomach. Would she be ok? Would she make friends? What if they treated her…well, with the hat she didn’t look too different. He looked at her little hatted head. He dearly hoped she would be ok. He would have liked to stay with her a bit longer but… The other parents were leaving, waving goodbye to their children.

  Riley was smiling. She didn’t seem upset or concerned. Then again, she didn’t have much of an imagination. Aerlid said goodbye, and wasn’t hurt that Riley said goodbye cheerfully. She caught the expression on his face though and carefully repeated his instructions to her. With some relief at that, Aerlid left, though he loitered at the gate.

  Riley waved at him before following the other children to where some large two legs were gathered.

  The children were splitting up, based on height it looked to her (though it was in actual fact age). Names were being called out and the groups were splitting up even further. When her full fake name was called she was surprised. She looked around and walked to her line. She was at the end, though more small two legs (no- she must call them children) were gathering behind her.

  The names trickled off. Lines were heading away. Hers began moving and she followed. They were led into the building and along a corridor. Suddenly the line stopped, up ahead there was a sound of a door opening. Then the line began moving again. The wall to her left was black and there was a table in front of it. Facing the table were rows of other tables and chairs.

  ‘Ok everyone, take a seat! No shoving now, there’s enough room for everyone.’

  Riley was perhaps the only unhurried soul in that room as the other children scrambled for seats next to their friends, or seats that weren’t wobbly or seats that weren’t too close to the front of the room.

  Riley took a seat in the third row back. A big boy stood in front of her. ‘Hey, I want that seat!’

  Riley stood up and calmly looked for another seat. The boy started in surprise. He had of course, expected to get what he wanted, but not like that.

  He sat down quietly while behind him Riley was taking a seat on the other side of the room. She spent no more time thinking about giving up her seat than the time taken for her to do it.

  When the seating was done a woman was left standing alone at the front. It was to this lady Riley gave her attention, because Aerlid had told her she was to listen and obey this person. (If there had been two large two legs she might have been confused and perhaps decided Aerlid meant her allegiance to belong to the larger large two legs.)

  ‘Now, I am Ms Thrope, I will be your teacher for the next five years.’ she cast her eyes over the class. ‘In this class we have both gemengs and humans, I don’t want to see any fighting because of it, understand?’ she said, her gaze sharp. ‘When I ask a question I expect a ‘yes, Ms Thrope’ or, ‘no, Ms Thrope’. Understand?’

  There was a chorus of ‘Yes, Ms Thrope.’ Riley joined in and was pleased she was behaving well.

  ‘Now, are we going to see any fighting?’

  ‘No, Ms Thrope.’

  ‘Very good. Now, keep your bags under your desks, if you have them. No eating or drinking in class, and no hats,’ she wasn’t looking at Riley as she said this but Riley was the only one wearing a hat. ‘If you have a question, you raise your hand. There is to be no talking while others are speaking. If you need to use the bathroom, you raise your hand. Is this understood?’

  ‘Yes, Ms Thrope.’

  Riley joined in the chorus but at the same time had her hand in the air, a distressed look on her face.

  ‘Yes? What is your name?’

  ‘Riley…Meilis, Ms Thrope.’she said, almost forgetting the fake family name.

  ‘What is it, Riley?’

  ‘I have to keep my hat on, Ms Thrope.’

  Ms Thrope was momentarily surprised but she said, ‘Not in my class, now take it off.’

  Riley paused, upset. Then she remembered Aerlid had told her to obey the teacher, and that was Ms Thrope. She took her hat off. As soon as it was off she wondered if she might also remove her hair tie. Because were not the hat and tie for the same purpose? She stowed her hat with her bag and thought she would wait and see if Ms Thrope changed her mind about the hat. If not, she would remove the tie. Deciding that, she beamed at the teacher, who was once again momentarily surprised.

  Ms Thrope explained how the day would be split up, what they would be learning this year, what they were expected to do for homework, supplies they were expected to bring and so on.

  The only paper in the classroom was in the school’s books, which Ms Thrope explained were very precious. They would learn to read from these during class. They would also learn to write, though on the board, not on paper.

  By the time this was all explained it was time to go out for break. Ms Thrope instructed everyone to take what they needed from their bags as the door would be locked during break and they would not be allowed back in.

  Before taking her things Riley approached Ms Thrope behind her table (desk- apparently it was called a desk. It wasn’t a table. It was different to a table in some as of yet unexplained way). ‘Should I put my hat back on, fena?’

  ‘If you wish, it is sunny outside. But I don’t want to see you wearing it inside again, understand?’

  ‘Yes, Ms Thrope.’ Riley said with glee.

  ‘And Riley, what is that word you use?’

  ‘What word, fena?’

  ‘That one, fena.’

  Riley stared at Ms Thrope before replying, ‘it is for female’s stronger than me.’

  ‘Well, the gemengs outside Astar may talk like that, but we don’t here. It would be best if you don’t use it. Understand?’

  Riley nodded, her face blank and uninterested. Ms Thrope dismissed her and she practically skipped back to her bag, where her hair tie and hat were stowed away for all eternity. With her lunch in hand she then left with the other children.

  They were to have lunch around the back of the school. It was a flat dirt rectangle, with straggly grass trying to make some sort of ground cover.

  Riley chose a spot and sat. The other children were talking and laughing and running. Riley watched them, but she was hungry and it was the designated eating time.

  As she started eating her lunch the big boy from before came and stood over her. ‘Gimme your lunch!’ he called, sticking his hand out.

  Riley, surprised, asked, ‘do you not have any, fa?’

  Once again the boy was startled, though not as much as before. ‘I do. And I want yours!’

  ‘No, fa.’ Now that that was settled Riley turned back to her meal.

  The boy was still casting a shadow over her, but this was of no concern to Riley. He did not register as a possi
ble threat to her, so what did she care where he stood? As long as he wasn’t in danger himself; she was to protect the humans after all.

  ‘Gimme your lunch NOW!’

  The argument was in Riley’s mind done with. There was no point in responding, so she didn’t.

  The boy opened his mouth for another roar, then stopped. ‘Are you human?’ he asked.

  ‘I am a gemeng.’ Riley replied promptly.

  ‘Then gimme your lunch or I’ll tell!’

  ‘No.’ she didn’t know what ‘tell’ meant. She noted it, that was all.

  The shadow disappeared and Riley calmly continued her lunch, watching the other children chatting and laughing.

  Then the shadow reappeared, only this time it was longer. Riley looked up and smiled, for it was Ms Thrope who had freed her from the hat and tie. ‘Hello Ms Thrope.’ she said brightly, for Aerlid had told her it was polite to greet people in such a manner. Aerlid had also told her some things that could follow that, such as ‘How are you today?’ and so on, but she felt that that wasn’t necessary here as Riley had been with her all day.

  ‘Riley,’ Ms Thrope said sternly. ‘Did you hit Razra?’

  The big boy was standing next to Ms Thrope looking delighted. He wasn’t a devious enough boy to try and look scared.

  ‘No.’

  Riley replied so matter-of-factly Ms Thrope believed her at once. Still, this was a serious issue and you couldn’t just believe a gemeng that said ‘it wasn’t me’. ‘Really?’ Ms Thrope pressed, ‘Razra says you hit him. You’ll get in more trouble if you lie.’

  ‘I did not hit him.’ then Riley added, ‘He is a human. You have to be gentle with them.’ Riley looked up at Ms Thrope earnestly, as if she was telling her something of great importance. To Riley, she was.

  Ms Thrope turned to look at Razra. ‘Did she really hit you?’ She looked him over more carefully; he did not look like a boy just pounced on by a gemeng.

  Riley was eating again, the conversation dealt with to her satisfaction.

  Ms Thrope had been a teacher for some years and had learned that just as it was important to punish gemengs for hitting humans, it was just as important to make sure the human children didn’t try and lie, or force a gemeng into a fight. Despite what the human parents thought, the gemeng children were rarely the ones to start trouble. They were all too aware of their difference, and how the humans viewed them.

  Despite this, Ms Thrope did not think gemengs should go to school. The gemengs only ever joined the military, and while humans who joined the military might be able to think and reason and add more to the military than just their muscle, the gemengs could not. So, why not just send them to the military from the beginning and not waste valuable resources schooling them? But the leaders thought this was best, and were they not the most able of their society? If she was that intelligent she would be part of the Council of Astar, not a teacher. So while she firmly believed gemengs should not be schooled, she just as firmly believed that she should follow the policies of the council, in letter and spirit.

  So it was that she looked at Razra sternly. ‘Well?’

  He sighed. ‘No.’

  She frowned severely at him. ‘Razra Lesian, I’ll let you off with a warning, but if you falsely accuse one of your colleagues again there will be consequences, understand?’

  ‘Yes, Ms Thrope.’ he sighed.

  Ms Thrope left, to continue watching over her charges from afar.

  Razra continued standing over Riley. ‘Are you a very strong gemeng?’ he asked shyly after a while.

  Riley looked up at him. Razra had no idea what to make of her. One of his brothers or sisters would be screaming at him right now. Why wasn’t she upset?

  Riley had to think about this and finally said, ‘I’m not much stronger than a human, fa.’

  This was an answer Razra should have expected- if she was she wouldn’t be in Astar after all, nonetheless, he was happy. ‘Can you breathe fire?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Have you ever fought any humans?’ He was thinking of the shows he saw- the theatre and once on the screen. The current favourite was about a fighter pilot who crashed in the middle of the Plains and had to get back to Astar using only his wits and courage.

  ‘No.’ she frowned. ‘I have to take care of you, fa.’ By you, Riley meant humans in general, but Razra interpreted it as him specifically.

  ‘Really? So you’ll do what I say?’

  ‘No, fa.’ Riley replied, confused. Why did the big boy think she would do that?

  ‘Why do you talk funny?’ Razra suddenly said.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘All those words. Fa, what’s a fa?’

  ‘It is a word for a male-‘

  ‘Are you going to be my bodyguard?’ he interrupted.

  ‘What..?’

  ‘Is that what you call the person you guard?’ Razra asked excitedly.

  ‘No…’ Riley replied, confused and wondering if she should perhaps stop using fa as well as fena.

  ‘That’s so cool!’ Razra said, getting excited. He sat down with a plomp and stuck out his hand. ‘I’m Razra!’

  Riley, pleased this was back on familiar territory, shook his hand gravely. ‘My name is Riley.’

  ‘You can be my sidekick! We can fight gemengs together! Have you seen Jeitar and Molozor?’

  ‘No…’ Riley was the one flummoxed now, while Razra was blissfully unaware of it.

  ‘Did you see that show where Molozor saved Jeitar from the evil gemeng who infiltrated Astar?’

  ‘No…?’

  ‘It was on last week at the CTA!’ To Riley it sounded like ‘ceta!’

  Razra edged closer, ‘well, this gemeng, Molzolzor, snuck into Astar and stole Zolcar’s identity, that’s Jeitar’s friend from the other show, remember?’

  Riley didn’t know what to do so she gaped, dumbstruck.

  ‘Anyway, Jeitar…’

  By the time Ms Thrope called the children in for class Riley had heard about most of Jeitar and Molozor’s most recent adventure. As they were heading in Razra whispered the end, ‘So Molzolzor was really Molozor’s father, and that’s why Molozor ran away to Astar, because his father was an evil gemeng! He escaped, but Jeitar’ll get him and save Astar.’

  ‘Astar needs saving?’ Riley asked weakly.

  ‘Well Molzolzor’s plotting to destroy it!’

  When the day ended Riley was relieved to see Aerlid waiting for her at the fence. She ran to him, and Aerlid was struck with worry. When they walked home Riley told him they had to watch out for Molzolzor.

  ‘Molzol…who?’ Aerlid asked weakly.

  Riley told him about how an evil gemeng was plotting to destroy Astar. He got the whole story out of her, and zoomed in on ‘ceta’.

  Aerlid quickly detoured back to the clinic to talk to Keila.

  When he was finished he had to explain to Riley Molzolzor wasn’t real. It was a serial play put on for children at the Children’s Theatre of Astar.

  She was very relieved to hear that.

  Razra was friends with most of the children in their class, so even though Riley had made a friend, she often sat alone. Razra was not a mean boy, but he had a need to push the boundaries and find where he stood in the playground hierarchy. He already knew his position in his own family, and he needed to know the same for school. He often came across as pushy and mean and his friendships tended to seesaw between love and hate. This didn’t concern him, for wasn’t it the same with his siblings? One minute he could be fighting with Meila, the next they’d be ganging up against Fann.

  Riley wasn’t a brilliant student, however she was perhaps the most well behaved. The other children weren’t sure how to treat her. She didn’t behave like the other gemengs, who were always pathetically pleased when a human deigned to play with them.

  Today all the children were gathered outside under Ms Thrope’s watchful eye. This was to be the first day they’d have a physical lesson, and in mixed cla
sses the first lesson could always be…problematic. Ms Thrope had just finished explaining to everyone how they had to be careful with each other, and not to play rough etc etc.

  Riley listened attentively. There was a pause as Ms Thrope cast her eye once more over the assembled children. ‘The rules are simple,’ she announced, ’if you are touched by whoever is ‘it’ you must stop. You can only move again if someone circles you twice without being tagged themselves. I don’t want to see any rough play! Jann, you will start as ‘it’. GO!’

  The children began running around and laughing. Riley, who had been instructed by Aerlid not to be faster, stronger, better than the strongest gemeng in the class, watched and ran carefully. She was silent and mostly ignored.

  After some minutes of play Ms Thrope declared that Leili was it. Riley freed two people easily- perhaps moving quicker and more agilely than she should have. Then she allowed herself to be tagged.

  ‘Razra, you’re it!’ Ms Thrope called.

  Riley was freed finally and ran to free some more people.

  ‘Riley, you’re it!’

  Riley stopped, startled. She looked at Ms Thrope who gestured at her to get on with it. She was the first gemeng to be chosen.

  Riley looked around, spotted someone who she knew hadn’t been tagged yet and chose him as her target. She ran after him. The boy was panting. Riley let the chase continue for some seconds then started building up speed. Ms Thrope watched in apprehension as she approached. Then Riley tapped the boy on the back, so lightly the boy didn’t notice and kept running. Riley stopped in consternation. She didn’t want to hurt him. She was meant to be gentle.

  ‘Darni, stop, you were tagged!’ Ms Thrope called, and nodded at Riley. ‘You may tap a little harder than that. Not much harder, just a little bit.’

  Just to be on the safe side Ms Thrope called another human as ‘it’ before Riley could experiment.

  Aerlid frowned as Riley told him about her day. It was a routine they had. They sat in the living room, he on one chair she standing up, as it was her preference.

  ‘And we’ve been learning to write.’ she was saying.

  ‘Riley.’

  She fell silent.

  ‘Why are you talking like that?’

  Riley looked at him blankly.

  He sighed as he tried to explain. ‘The way you are talking, it is not how I taught you.’ he said.

  ‘That’s how they talk at school. I’m fitting in.’

  ‘It is poor language.’ he said harshly. ‘It is talking like a baby!’

  He hadn’t noticed how poorly the Astarians spoke until he had noticed Riley’s speech changing, perhaps because he had been so tired when he first arrived that he had got used to it without noticing it. The Seiaan spoken in Astar was not the same as when he’d learnt it. Only a child would have been permitted to use it in the way the people of Astar did. Seiaan had never been a complicated language, and what complexity it had possessed had been stripped from it. At best, Keila and Jania thought he spoke in a very formal way. At worst they had trouble understanding him. He didn’t have trouble understanding them though. No more trouble than any adult had understanding a seven year old.

  It was a tragedy to hear it spoken so but perhaps… ‘Very well,’ he choked out. ‘Speak that way among the people of Astar, but with me, please speak properly.’

  Riley nodded, her big green eyes watching him intently.

  Oh, if someone had done to his language what the Astarians had done to theirs…

  ‘You were saying they’d begun teaching you to read.’ he said carefully, as a man expecting a mortal blow.

  She nodded.

  ‘Show me.’

  They had no paper so for the next hour they went outside and Riley made shapes in the dirt.

  It took him about that long to figure out what, exactly, he was looking at. Back when Seiaan had been spoken properly it had never been a written language, they had used Akran instead for their writing. Sometimes they had also used Bedon- a language from a land which had been further north. This was… he rather thought it was a sloppy mix of poor Akran, misguided Bedon and an attempt to force Seiaan into written form.

  He swallowed and choked. It wasn’t likely that teaching her to read Akran or Bedon would be very useful, but allowing her to learn this… nonsense was the kindest word for it… that would take some getting used to.

  For half an hour or an hour every day the children learnt to read. In the beginning Ms Thrope taught them on the blackboard but they had progressed enough now that in groups they were given simple books to try and read. Ms Thrope as usual kept a very close eye on her charges. The children had been informed that if a book was damaged the entire group would have to split the cost. They were also aware that if they were very, very good they might earn the chance to take a book home for the night- once again if it was damaged or lost their family would be paying for it.

  Because of the risk involved not all families wanted the honour of keeping a book for the night. Those that were interested gave their names to Ms Thrope. Riley was among the few gemengs that had their name on the list. Aerlid had been positively delighted at the thought of having a book to teach her to read with, after he had recovered from the shock of what was considered written language in Astar. Riley’s lessons continued after school as well. At the moment they made do with writing with sticks in the dirt.

  When Riley returned home that day Aerlid once again asked if she had a book with her.

  ‘No.’ she replied and put her backpack on the table. ‘Are we going to train now?’ Under the table her animal skin bed roll was carefully stowed. They did not have enough money to buy a second bed yet. Riley preferred to sleep on the floor herself rather than have Aerlid do it.

  Aerlid fixed her with a hard look. ‘No. You are going to sit down and tell me about your day.’

  Riley sighed and took a seat, her short legs dangling far from the floor. ‘We read and did numbers and geography and played and I had to do immersion with the other gemengs.’

  Immersion was a time when gemengs were taught basic things about life in Astar that humans already knew. Despite the fact that most gemeng children had been born in Astar all gemengs were required to take part and were tested. For Riley however, it was very useful and this was a class she tended to share with Aerlid. During this time the humans learnt about gemengs. What they learnt Riley didn’t know- she didn’t believe Razra was a reliable source on this topic.

  ‘What about history?’

  ‘No.’

  Aerlid frowned. ‘When are you going to do that? Next year?’

  Riley shrugged.

  ‘I would like you to ask.’

  Riley nodded.

  Aerlid relented and asked her what she had learnt in immersion.

  The next day Riley waited until the other children had left for lunch before approaching Ms Thrope with her question.

  ‘Ms Thrope, I have a question.’

  Ms Thrope fixed her with a steely gaze. ‘Yes, Riley, what is it?’

  ‘When do we learn about history?’

  There was a pause. ‘What?’ she asked finally.

  ‘When do we learn about history?’ Riley repeated herself exactly.

  ‘History.’ Ms Thrope repeated.

  ‘Yes.’ Riley now thought Ms Thrope had not misheard her, but had not understood her, and started to explain what history was. ‘Well…when was Astar colonized? Where did the humans live before? Where did they come from?’ These were things she had gathered Aerlid wanted to know.

  Ms Thrope frowned severely at her. ‘School is for important matters. We don’t waste our time with trivialities like that, that sort of thing is for the CTA. Now go and eat your lunch.’

  Riley nodded, her task accomplished, and obeyed Ms Thrope’s command.

  When she repeated Ms Thrope’s response to Aerlid he very nearly exploded.